]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-our-mysterious-internet/feed/2thuhaYour weekend reading: Management 101 for terrorists, the woman who helped Snowdenhttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-management-101-for-terrorists-the-woman-who-helped-snowden/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-management-101-for-terrorists-the-woman-who-helped-snowden/#commentsFri, 16 Aug 2013 20:00:09 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=81039[…]]]>While the TED Blog chills for the next two weeks, take a break to read some of our favorite pieces from around the Internet over the past seven days:

A fascinating, at times hilarious, look at business management practices in high-threat terrorist organizations. [Foreign Affairs]

A profile of Laura Poitras, the documentary filmmaker who helped Edward Snowden in his leak. Cinematic in its surreality. [The New York Times]

Just by us living our lives, coincidences can become likely. A mathematician explains. [Nautilus]

How many Oppenheimer books is too many? However many it is, we’re not there yet. Freeman Dyson on Ray Monk’s new book about the legendary physicist and his own interactions with Oppenheimer. [New York Review of Books]

A lovely ode to the “mentor text,” or what one journalist calls “zigging when everyone else was zagging.” The scene: A Justin Bieber concert. The hero: A Rusty Peacock. [Poyntor]

A bigger picture look at what Jeff Bezos will mean to The Washington Post. [The Millions]

A University of Oregon study looks at how the rise of online search tools has transformed the librarian profession. More thrilling than it sounds. [Sci Tech Daily]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-garys-glass-a-malarial-milestone/feed/15thuhaYour weekend reading: Life without (realizing you have no) smell, getting credible stories out of North Koreahttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-life-without-realizing-you-have-no-smell-getting-credible-stories-out-of-north-korea/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-life-without-realizing-you-have-no-smell-getting-credible-stories-out-of-north-korea/#commentsFri, 02 Aug 2013 21:15:17 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=80431[…]]]>Insight from the interwebs the weeks of July 22 and 29:

A poignant, funny, slightly heartbreaking story of a woman who doesn’t realize for many years that she has anosmia, no sense of smell. [The Millions]

How do you get credible, nongovernment information about daily life out of North Korea? [Al Jazeera]

How Geoff Dyer went from consistently glum-looking chum to smiling idiot. [The Guardian]

The American Medical Association mandates that doctors cannot “refuse to care for patients based on any ‘invidious’ discriminatory criteria like race or ethnicity.” But what happens when a patient is racist? [The New York Times Well Blog]

Interesting, informative, bizarre. Here’s a round-up of interwebs reading from the past few weeks:

Mushrooms are not at the top of my favorite foods list but, above, see why they are now at the top of my favorite things to watch a timelapse video of. Shot by cinematographer Louie Schwartzberg (watch his TED Talks) and starring mushroom enthusiast Paul Stamets. [io9]

Nobody expects atoms and molecules to have a purpose, so why do we still treat living beings like they do? [Aeon]

An in-depth look at the most often cited fertility statistics show they are misleading and based on outdated information. [The Atlantic]

A neuroscientist says human head transplants are now possible. [Quartz]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-purpose-of-life-an-excellent-mushroom-timelapse/feed/8thuhaYour weekend reading: The value of coders, a Chinese school lecture from spacehttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-value-of-coders-a-chinese-school-lecture-from-space/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-value-of-coders-a-chinese-school-lecture-from-space/#commentsSat, 22 Jun 2013 14:05:16 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=79087[…]]]>Some staff-picked food for thought from around the interwebs this week:

A new report on the continuing decline of the humanities in U.S. education systems. [The New York Times]

The Bodleian Library acquires the manuscript of a classic of environmental poetry. [MHP Books]

A useful comparison of the protests in Brazil and Turkey. [The AP via NPR]

A former CIA analyst gives her take on the real problems of the Edward Snowden case. [Foreign Affairs]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-value-of-coders-a-chinese-school-lecture-from-space/feed/7thuhaYour weekend reading: Damsels in distress, the sounds of pots in Istanbul, and morehttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-damsels-in-distress-the-sounds-of-pots-in-istanbul-and-more/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-damsels-in-distress-the-sounds-of-pots-in-istanbul-and-more/#commentsFri, 07 Jun 2013 21:30:11 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=76866[…]]]>Below, find some interesting and insightful pieces from around the web this week that have the TED staff intrigued:
Jackson Katz: Violence against women—it's a men's issue

The second installment in the smart, darkly funny “Damsel in Distress” series, a three-part analysis of female tropes pervasive in video games. Contains game spoilers and violent images. [YouTube] You can also watch Part 1. We think Jackson’s Katz’s recent TED Talk about how to change the culture surrounding violence against women is especially relevant here.

This song shot in the streets of Istanbul is at turns funny, beautiful, heart-warming and absolutely devastating. [YouTube]

Former NSA senior official Bill Binney blows the whistle on his old employer. [Guardian]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-damsels-in-distress-the-sounds-of-pots-in-istanbul-and-more/feed/0thuhaYour weekend reading: Prime number pairs, the unanswerable question of waking life, and much morehttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-prime-number-pairs-the-unanswerable-question-of-waking-life/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-prime-number-pairs-the-unanswerable-question-of-waking-life/#commentsFri, 31 May 2013 21:30:38 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=76393[…]]]>A few fun links from this week’s Internet, so you don’t get bogged down with all that summer reading you’re about to do »

[Video] A Numberphile video explains a recent breakthrough by a relatively unknown mathematician, on pairs of prime numbers that differ by two. [YouTube]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-prime-number-pairs-the-unanswerable-question-of-waking-life/feed/4thuhaYour weekend reading: The ban on gay Boy Scouts lifted, Carl Zimmer on rare diseases, and morehttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-ban-on-gay-boy-scouts-lifted-carl-zimmer-on-rare-diseases-and-more/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-ban-on-gay-boy-scouts-lifted-carl-zimmer-on-rare-diseases-and-more/#commentsFri, 24 May 2013 20:43:14 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=76128[…]]]>Fun stuff, stuff to make you cry, serious stuff, weird stuff. Here, a recap of all the coolest stuff on the interwebs this week.

More than 60 percent of 1400 Boy Scout leaders voted to lift its longtime ban on openly gay scouts. [The New York Times].

A fantastic piece by Carl Zimmer on how studying rare diseases can help mainstream medicine. [The Atlantic].

Listen to the only known recording of Virginia Woolf’s voice. [Paris Review].

Some cool visualizations of the world’s tallest building, which will be 838 meters tall and in an empty field in China. [Quartz].

Dexter Johnson begins a column in which he explores the origins of “seven or never,” a principle in nanotech that says any new technology appears on the market in seven years or not at all. [IEEE Spectrum].

From last week, a heart-wrenching story about a man who, hit by a truck when he was 6 and living with brain damage since, finally found peace in running. Tissues required. [Runner’s World].

Neat photo. The line that divides East and West Berlin is still distinguishable at night — by different lightbulbs. [Imgur]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-ban-on-gay-boy-scouts-lifted-carl-zimmer-on-rare-diseases-and-more/feed/1thuhaYour weekend reading: The case against empathy, gorgeous photos from the NatGeo contesthttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-case-against-empathy-gorgeous-photos-from-the-natgeo-contest/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-case-against-empathy-gorgeous-photos-from-the-natgeo-contest/#commentsFri, 17 May 2013 23:15:33 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=75923[…]]]>If you can only digest six awesome pieces of Internet content this week (plus one congrats), look no further. Here’s a round-up of the best stories on the webs this week.
Paul Bloom: The origins of pleasure

TED speaker Paul Bloom makes a compelling case against empathy, arguing that empathy alone is not sufficient to uphold morality — and may even work against it. [The New Yorker]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-case-against-empathy-gorgeous-photos-from-the-natgeo-contest/feed/1thuhaYour weekend reading: Depression in comics, betting on the origin of the universehttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-depression-in-comics-betting-on-the-origin-of-the-universe/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-depression-in-comics-betting-on-the-origin-of-the-universe/#commentsSat, 11 May 2013 16:30:21 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=75679[…]]]>A round-up of funny, interesting and strange stories on the Internet this week:

Hyperbole and a Half’s Allie Brosh is back after a two-year hiatus, with part 2 of an illustrated account of overcoming depression. Dark and delightful. [Hyperbole and a Half]

A Spanish foundation uses lenticular printing to show a different anti-abuse ad to people depending on their height, to convey a secret message to abused children when walking with their abusers. [Gizmodo]

Researchers observe that theta brainwaves are predictors for the ability to overcome ingrained Pavlovian biases, which could help in treating conditions like addiction and obsessive-compulsive disorder. [Sci Tech Daily]

Neurohumanities: Breakthrough cross-disciplinary approach, or reductionist field? In other words: Does “how your brain is firing … tell you if something is ironic, metaphorical or meaningful”? The jury is still out. [The Nation]

A redditor projected a circle (ish) on a map of the world and observed some astonishing facts. [io9]

The extent of human creativity/weirdness always baffles me, but I have to say the Internet really won my heart this week. Here are some staff picks of weird, beautiful, smart stories and videos from the interwebs this week.

Today was the final day to tweet #TornadoWeek to turn up the winds on interns at the Weather Channel. It seems the Weather Channel is embracing climate change with reckless abandon as it turns to an aggressively hilarious editorial strategy. [The Weather Channel] UPDATE: Unfortunately the livestream of the interns getting blasted is over, but you can watch a clip at CNBC ».

If you were a kid growing up in the U.S. in the ’80s and ’90s, or raised a kid during this time, PBS was a testament to the power of good educational television. A satirical trailer-making group called Gritty Robots published a heart-warming video this week of beloved PBS personalities Carl Sagan, Mr. Rogers, Bill Nye the Science Guy (see his TED-Ed lesson above) and Bob Ross as as the Avengers, saving us from bad TV. [Gizmodo].

Did you know that being annoyed at the incorrect use of “literally” is about as old as the heinous act itself? Ben Yagoda has a literal breakdown. [Lingua Franca].

An inside story on the future of Guantanamo Bay and its history of hunger strikes, by Shihab Rattansi. [Al Jazeera].

The painted turtle is on the path to extinction. A sad, strange story of how it may soon become a 100 percent female species, due to the fact that its eggs are more likely to hatch as females if they are in warm nests. [New Scientist].

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-weather-channel-interns-under-windy-duress-carl-sagan-back-from-the-dead-to-save-us-from-terrible-tv/feed/1thuhaYour weekend reading: The wrong kind of Caucasian, the graduate school question, and how the Internet ruined everythinghttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-wrong-kind-of-caucasian-how-the-internet-ruined-everything/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-wrong-kind-of-caucasian-how-the-internet-ruined-everything/#commentsFri, 26 Apr 2013 22:41:01 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=75170[…]]]>A weekly round-up of interesting, weird and useful reads from around the interwebs.

In “The wrong kind of Caucasian,” Sarah Kendzior critiques the media for its tendency to demonize an entire country based on the violent acts of a few individuals. [Al Jazeera]

“The Internet: A Warning from History,” or how the Internet ruined everything. Just watch it. [The Poke]

An independent company hopes to support Kickstarter’s mission by aggregating all the T-shirts listed in Kickstarter rewards, turning the site into a shirt shop. A weekend hack by web company P’unk Avenue. [Kick shirts]

UCLA professor Peter Nonacs taught his students game theory by letting them cheat on an exam. [Pop Sci]

Kim Hyun-hui was a North Korean spy who blew up a South Korean airliner with an accomplice in 1987, killing 115 people. She gives a rare interview. [BBC] For a very different escape from North Korea, watch Hyeonseo Lee’s talk from TED2013 »

Finally, let Harvard guess your age based on a series of red dots. [Huffington Post]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-the-wrong-kind-of-caucasian-how-the-internet-ruined-everything/feed/2thuhaYour weekend reading: A marathon to remember, income inequality a subway ride awayhttp://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-a-marathon-to-remember-income-inequality-a-subway-ride-away/
http://blog.ted.com/your-weekend-reading-a-marathon-to-remember-income-inequality-a-subway-ride-away/#commentsFri, 19 Apr 2013 22:56:56 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=74936[…]]]>It’s been a hard week for many Americans, as the Boston bombings continue to raise more and more questions. Here is some weekend reading as you await answers.

A poignant ode to the city of Boston, its annual marathon and the victims of the April 15 bombings. [NY Review of Books Blog]

Far, far away in another American city, income inequality varies from block to block. The New Yorker has released an insightful data visualization of city income by subway stop. [New Yorker] Find out more »

Galileo’s public condemnation is often invoked to defend new or unverified science. But as Adam Gopnik writes for the BBC, Galileo taught us a more important lesson: the value of the experimental method, the essence of what science is. [BBC.co.uk]

Would you like to go to Mars? Would you like to go to Mars to be filmed for a reality TV show? Would you like to go to Mars to be filmed for a reality TV show, knowing you probably won’t come back? Your dream has come true »

Some staff picks of smart, funny, bizarre and cool stuff on the interwebs this week:

Super-duper useful mandatory homework: Get a secure password now. As xkcd explains, most people’s approach to secure passwords (a word bastardized with “random” capital letters and punctuation that’s difficult to remember) is wrong. Now go get yourself a good password. If you need to ask why this is important, watch our informative playlist all about hackers.

Scientists reveal a new technique called CLARITY that can render a brain nearly invisible — that is, rid the brain of light-scattering lipids that make it hard to look at in detail. [io9]

A must-watch Frontline documentary on the conflict in Syria, but not like you’ve seen before. A powerful human-interest piece. [PBS]

Read an eye-opening piece by Gina Kolata on the world of sham academic journals. It’s disturbing that even reputable academics get scammed. [NYTimes] It’s becoming difficult to parse what’s legitimate on the interwebs, as we learn from Markham Nolan’s talk on false Internet stories. Here’s a useful guide to some predatory open-access journals.

We’re a little late on this one, but The Invisible War is a harrowing, Academy Award-nominated documentary about rape in the U.S. military. (Did you know that 25 percent of U.S. servicewomen don’t report their rape because the person to report to is their rapist?) Watch the documentary »

A slightly odd story about Rami Abdul Rahman, basically the one-man team behind the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which produces the main casualty reports coming out of the Syrian conflict. [NYTimes]

Whole Foods announces a new partnership with Gotham Greens, co-founded by TED Fellow Viraj Puri, to build a greenhouse on the roof of its forthcoming location in Gowanus, Brooklyn. [Grocery Headquarters]

]]>http://blog.ted.com/in-short-dragonflies-that-amaze-the-secret-of-your-unique-breathprint/feed/1thuhaIn short: An upworthy birthday, death in the 20th centuryhttp://blog.ted.com/in-short-an-upworthy-birthday-death-in-the-20th-century/
http://blog.ted.com/in-short-an-upworthy-birthday-death-in-the-20th-century/#commentsFri, 29 Mar 2013 22:30:38 +0000http://blog.ted.com/?p=73878[…]]]>Here, some staff picks of smart, funny, bizarre and cool stuff on the interwebs this week:

Happy Birthday, Upworthy! Here are 11 lessons our friends at Upworthy learned in their first year on the Internet. [Upworthy]

Jay Horwitz, media relations director for the Mets, is the Barry Bonds of butt dialing. He frequently booty calls everyone in the MBA but everyone’s cool with it. [WSJ.com]

A piece by Ed Yong takes an in-depth look at new findings on the mechanics of swarming, a phenomenon that has baffled scientists. Awesome quote: “Cannibalism, not cooperation, was aligning the swarm.” [Wired]

Beautiful photos from Christo’s “Big Air Package” — which is being called the “largest indoor sculpture in history” — being installed at the Gasometer Oberhausen, due to premiere in December 2013. [This is colossal]

What is it like growing up in a futurist household? Veronique Greenwood’s mother, a technology consultant, was touting the rise of mobile social networking years before the iPhone had come out and before Facebook had a “Like” button; she had pens printed with the slogan “Remember when we could only hear each other?” a decade before Skype. [Aeon magazine]